49th Season

Anne Watson Born, Music Director

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Dear Patrons,

Welcome to the final concert of the 2024-2025 season! It’s been a busy year, beginning with a group of Chorale members singing at the Town of Pepperell Flag Reenactment in September. We then sang “Neptune” from Holst’s The Planets and Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem with the Cambridge Symphony Orchestra, Cynthia Woods, conductor, and the UMass Lowell Choral Ensembles, Jonathan Richter, conductor. December brought collaborations with the Gateway City Orchestra, Jared Bloch, conductor, and the Worcester Youth Symphony Orchestra, Jonathan Colby, conductor. In February we broke our usual mold and presented a pops concert, accompanied by a marvelous jazz trio put together by NVC’s collaborative pianist, Shawn McCann, and headlined by our Emerging Artist, Sofia Santoro.

It is fitting to close out our season by again showcasing Shawn’s piano skills, as he and Abigail Charbeneau accompany us in the Brahms Requiem. We are so fortunate to have these two talented pianists working with us. We also welcome baritone David McFerrin and soprano Deborah Selig as our vocal soloists today.

We are busy planning for 2025-2026, which (ta-da!) will be our 50th anniversary season. The Chorale was founded by Ruth Treen Wise and Mike Manugian in 1975; the Chorale’s success is a tribute to both of them. Look for more information over the summer about our anniversary season plans. And as it happens, it will be my 20th season as the Chorale’s Music Director – time flies!

Our rehearsals for next season will begin on Monday, September 8, 2025 at Acton Congregational Church. We welcome all vaccinated singers. Please go to www.nvcsings.org for more information.

We also are always looking for those persons who love choral music and the Chorale and who may want to help out by serving – on the Board, on a committee, or by helping with a special project. Please contact us via our website (www.nvcsings.org) or by phone (978-540-0088) if you’d like to volunteer.

Thank you for supporting the Chorale and attending our concerts. We feel doubly fortunate to be able to learn such glorious music in rehearsal and to present it to you in performance.

Anne Watson Born

April 2025

This program is supported in part by grants from the local cultural councils of Acton-Boxborough, Ayer, Concord, Groton, Littleton, and Shirley, local agencies which are supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.

Nashoba Valley Chorale

Ein Deutsches Requiem

Sunday, April 27, 2025

3:00pm

Groton-Dunstable Performing Arts Center

344 Main Street

Groton, MA 01450

Anne Watson Born, Conductor

Deborah Selig, Soprano

David McFerrin, Baritone

Abigail Charbeneau, Piano

Shawn McCann, Piano

Ein Deutsches Requiem

Opus 45

Johannes Brahms (1833 - 1897)

I. Selig sind, die da Leid tragen

II. Denn alles Fleisch, es ist wie Gras

III. Herr, lehre doch mich

Mr. McFerrin

IV. Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen

V. Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit

Ms. Selig

VI. Denn wir haben hie keine bleibende Statt

Mr. McFerrin

VII. Selig sind die Toten

Program Notes

Ein deutsches Requiem, nach Worten der heiligen Schrift (“A German Requiem, after words of the Holy Scriptures”).

Johannes Brahms was born in Hamburg, Germany, on May 7, 1833, and died in Vienna on April 3, 1897. He completed all but what is now the fifth movement of “Ein deutsches Requiem” in August 1866. Johannes Herbeck conducted the first three movements on December 1, 1867, in Vienna; the first performance of the six then-existing movements was given on Good Friday of 1868 in the Bremen cathedral; Brahms conducted, with Julius Stockhausen as baritone soloist. Brahms added the fifth movement (“Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit,” which calls for solo soprano) in May 1868, that movement first being sung on September 17 that year in Zurich. The first performance of the complete seven-movement work took place in Leipzig on February 18, 1869; Carl Reinecke conducted the Gewandhaus Orchestra and Chorus. (Jan Swafford)

Although the Requiem is usually performed with full orchestra, Brahms also arranged the piece for four-hand piano accompaniment. The piano version of the piece was first performed at the home of Sir Henry Livingston in 1871. In the foreword to the piano 4-hands score, the editor, Wolfgang Hochstein, writes:

The piano version of the German Requiem represents more than a mere arrangement of the orchestral parts for piano duet. It is a reworking of the entire score, including the vocal parts, to form an autonomous keyboard composition; this…sets the transcription apart from a normal piano reduction intended for rehearsal purposes. In his quest for a piano duet texture which sounds well and is wholly pianistic in character, the composer proceeded in a manner which approaches creative reworking and fresh shaping of existing musical material. This applies, for example, to the many doublings by which particular melodies are brought out. [For our performance, I have cut sections out of the piano score where the solo and choral lines would not have been doubled in the orchestral version.]

By making this arrangement of the German Requiem for piano duet, Brahms was following a practice which was widely current during the 19th and early 20th centuries, of publishing symphonic works in transcriptions of this kind. Before the existence of recordings, arrangements such as this offered the public the best opportunity to become familiar with the composition in its entirety.

It has been very interesting and engaging to work on Ein Deutsches Requiem with our two excellent pianists. The themes of the work are heard with a clarity and immediacy that feels different from the orchestral version. The choir is able to sing expressively and with a greater dynamic range, and it’s a treat to experience the give and take that a chamber music setting brings. And - it’s still Brahms, with the rich harmonies, exciting fugues, and beautiful vocal writing.

Movement 1 (Matthew 5:4 and Psalm 126: 5,6)

Ein Deutsches Requiem begins with emphasis on those that mourn, not on those who have died (“Selig sind, die da Leid tragen”). The choral opening establishes the “Selig” motive, which Brahms will manipulate throughout the Requiem: a rising third resolving up a half step (Listen for its inversion at the third choral phrase.) At the words “Die mit Tränen säen” (“They that sow in tears”) Brahms changes the key to the flatted VI chord, a characteristic progression for him, and we hear arpeggiated chords in the piano for the first time. The texture thickens and the “Freude” (“joy”) theme appears. After much activity, the voices fall to a stop (“getröstet werden”) as the arpeggios ascend – earth and heaven.

Movement 2 (1 Peter 1:24, James 5:7, 1 Peter 1:25 and Isaiah 35:10)

This movement is marked “Langsam, marschmässig” – slow, marching. The image is one of mourners following the casket. It had its genesis in 1854, when Brahms’ mentor, the composer Robert Schumann, threw himself into the Rhine in an abortive attempt to kill himself (Schumann was subsequently hospitalized until his death in 1856). Brahms began a major two-piano work that morphed into a symphony, never completed, of which this was the scherzo (usually the third movement, in triple meter). The first movement of this unfinished symphony became the opening movement of the composer’s Piano Concerto No. 1 and this music became “Denn alles Fleisch es ist wie Gras” – “for all flesh is as grass” in the Requiem. The form of a scherzo movement, similar to a minuet, includes a contrasting trio section (here “So seid nun geduldig” – “be patient”), and then returns to the opening music, which is doubly poignant in its repetition.

The mood changes abruptly, with, appropriately, the word “Aber” (“But”) – and the choir launches into joy: “the word of the Lord endures for ever…and the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy” The eminent conductor, Robert Shaw, said:

I have a feeling that when Brahms even becomes joyful about Die Erlöseten – “The saved of the world will come rejoicing as I am” – I think he was making a march that included God too, you know? You see he wasn’t seeking security for himself and trying to convince himself by being loud, but I think he was describing that sort of security of righteousness which is its own condition, and God and manhood, which are their own dignity. (robertshaw.website)

Movement 3 (Psalm 39:4-7 and Wisdom of Solomon 3:1) This is perhaps the most difficult movement in the Requiem, in its musical demands and its emotional commitment. The baritone soloist opens with the words “Lord, let me know mine end” (the first personal “I” statement of the Requiem) and the choir echoes him. The music becomes steadily more agitated and rhythmically complex through the metrical change at “Ach, wie gar nichts sind alle Menschen” (“Surely every man walketh in a vain show”), leading to the piano accompaniment essentially abandoning the voices after “wess soll ich mich trösten?” (“how shall I comfort myself?”). As the choir lifts itself up with the text “Ich hoffe auf dich” (“I hope in thee”) the pianists rejoin the texture and the combined forces launch into the “Der Gerechten Seelen” fugue.

This highly complicated fugue is made more difficult by Brahms’ decision to anchor the entire section with a pedal point (a kind of drone) on the pitch D. “Brahms felt wedded to this effect as an expression of the assurance in the text: ‘The souls of the righteous are in the hands of God and no torment shall touch them.’” (Swafford) Clara Schumann said of it, “The only really troublesome thing in [the Requiem] is the fugue with the pedal note.” After the 1867 performance of the first three movements, the critic Eduard Hanslick wrote, ”During the concluding fugue of the third movement, surging above a pedal-point on D, [one] experiences the sensations of a passenger rattling through a tunnel in an express train.” (Part of the problem was that the timpanist at that performance played very loudly throughout –Brahms’ remedy for this was the marking he added later: piano ma ben marcato (soft but well marked).) The composer also lightened the texture a bit, making the interplay between voices and accompaniment easier to hear. Then in the final six measures: Brahms puts triplet rhythms on top; the duple eighth notes in the middle, which morph into a highly syncopated figure. As the fugue rolls into the cadence, the choir is basically holding on for dear life – an express train indeed.

Movement 4 (Psalm 84:1,2,4). “Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen” is the center of the work, an oasis of seemingly-uncomplicated melodies that turn the work toward life after death: “My soul longeth and fainteth for the courts of the Lord.” The opening descending motive is an inversion of the “Selig sind” motive from the first movement.

In April 1865 Brahms sent Clara Schumann a draft toward a new piece, observing, “It’s probably the least offensive part of some kind of German Requiem. But since it may have vanished into thin air before you come to Baden, at least have a look at the beautiful words it begins with.” The music he is impugning, “How lovely is thy dwelling place, O Lord of Hosts,” of course did not vanish from Ein deutsches Requiem. In fact, it is one of the most limpidly beautiful and beloved works in the entire choral repertoire.

Movement 5 (John 16:22, Ecclesiasticus 51:27 and Isaiah 66:13). The original version of Ein Deutsches Requiem, as premiered in 1868 in Bremen, did not include this movement. The idea of having a soprano solo in the work came from Brahms’ teacher Eduard Marxsen, and was probably helped by fact that at the premier in 1868, the program included the soprano Amalie Joachim singing Handel’s “I know that my redeemer liveth” (a nod to those who felt the Requiem was remiss in not mentioning Christ anywhere in its text). Hearing this transcendent music, one can only believe that Brahms was writing of his mother, Christiane, who died in 1865, but the composer always just huffed and snorted at the suggestion.

Here the relationship between soloist and chorus is completely different from the 3rd movement. The choir repeatedly murmurs one sentence, underneath the soloist: “As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you.” The soprano never sings those words; rather, she sings of the world to come: “I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice.”

Movement 6 (Hebrews 13:14, 1 Corinthians 15:51,52,54,55 and Revelation 4:11). In this massive movement we get a taste of a more traditional Requiem setting – the mention of the “last trumpet”, the idea that “Death is swallowed up in victory” – here the work moves as close to traditional Christian belief as it gets.

Interestingly, the relationship of the baritone and the choir is the same as in the 3rd movement: he intones “Wir werden nichat alle entschlafen” and they repeat. The music is quiet, somewhat wandering, and then the intensity increases at the text “at the last trumpet” and the pianists and chorus erupt with “for the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” There’s a manic waltz at “Hölle, wo ist dein Sieg?” – “Grave, where is thy victory?” – and an amazing metrical shift to a grand, Handelian fugue (“Lord, thou art worthy to receive glory and honor”). This is a fugue that begins as a fugue and ends as a completely Brahmsian, Romantic anthem of praise, with dramatic dynamic and registral shifts.

Movement 7 (Revelations 14:13) We come to the close, the final movement symmetrical with the first, but now the text is “Selig sind die Toten”, “blessed are the dead”. We come at last to the place most requiems begin, and it feels like the right end to the journey. Brahms takes the music of the opening movement’s “they shall be comforted” and uses it for “blessed are the dead which die in the Lord.” Full circle.

Brahms’s Requiem has no trace of incense, no bowing to the altar. It reaches beyond the walls of churches to touch the eternal sources of grief and hope. It is a spiritual work in the universal language of music, addressed to all humanity, which is to say, to those that mourn and need comfort. “ Freude,” “joy,” is the word heard most often in Ein deutsches Requiem. Brahms meant “Freude” in the same sense Beethoven did in the Ninth Symphony. For a humanist, joy is the summit of life, and it is the rebirth of joy that all people hope for on the other side of mourning. (Jan Swafford)

–Anne Watson Born

Sources:

Anne Watson Born, program notes for the NVC Ein Deutsches Requiem performance, spring 2017
Jan Swafford, program notes for BSO Ein Deutsches Requiem performances, fall 2016
Jan Swaffod, Brahms: A Biography
Wolfgang Hochstein, foreword to the piano score (1989), trans. John Coombs

Text and Translation

English translation based on King James Version

Selig sind, die da Leid tragen,

denn sie sollen getröstet werden.

Die mit Tränen säen,

werden mit Freuden ernten.

Sie gehen hin und weinen

und tragen edlen Samen,

und kommen mit Freuden

und bringen ihre Garben.

Blessed are they that mourn;

for they shall be comforted.

—Matthew 5:4

They that sow in tears

shall reap in joy.

He that goeth forth and weepeth,

bearing precious seed,

shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,

bringing his sheaves with him.

—Psalm 126:5,6

II.

Denn alles Fleisch ist wie Gras

und alle Herrlichkeit des Menschen

wie des Grases Blumen.

Das Gras ist verdorret

und die Blume abgefallen.

So seid nun geduldig, lieben Brüder,

bis auf die Zukunft des Herrn.

Siehe, ein Ackermann wartet

auf die köstliche Frucht der Erde

und is geduldig darüber, bis er empfahe

den Morgenregen und Abendregen.

Aber des Herrn Wort bleibet in Ewigkeit.

Die Erlöseten des Herrn werden wieder

kommen,

und gen Zion kommen mit Jauchzen;

ewige Freude wird über ihrem Haupte sein;

Freude und Wonne werden sie ergreifen

und Schmerz und Seufzen wird weg müssen.

For all flesh is as grass,

and all the glory of man

as the flower of grass.

The grass withereth,

and the flower thereof falleth away.

—1 Peter 1:24

Be patient therefore, brethren,

unto the coming of the Lord.

Behold, the husbandmen waiteth

for the precious fruit of the earth,

and hath long patience for it, until he receive

the early and latter rain.

—James 5:7

But the word of the Lord endureth for ever.

—1 Peter 1:25

And the ransomed of the Lord shall return,

and come to Zion with songs

and everlasting joy upon their heads:

they shall obtain joy and gladness,

and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

—Isaiah 35:10

III.

Herr, lehre doch mich,

daß ein Ende mit mir haben muß,

und mein Leben ein Ziel hat,

und ich davon muß.

Siehe, meine Tage sind

einer Hand breit vor dir,

und mein Leben ist wie nichts vor dir.

Ach, wie gar nichts sind alle Menschen, die

doch so sicher leben.

Sie gehen daher wie ein Schemen,

und machen ihnen viel vergebliche Unruhe;

sie sammeln und wissen nicht

wer es kriegen wird.

Nun Herr, wess soll ich mich trösten?

Ich hoffe auf dich.

Der Gerechten Seelen sind in Gottes Hand

und keine Qual rühret sie an.

Lord, make me to know mine end, and the

measure of my days, what it is: that I

may know how frail I am.

Behold, thou hast made my days as an

handbreadth;

and mine age is as nothing before thee.

Surely, every man at his best state is but

vanity.

Surely every man walketh in a vain shew:

surely they are disquieted in vain:

he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who

shall gather them.

And now, Lord, what do I wait for?

my hope is in thee.

—Psalm 39:4-7

But the souls of the righteous are in the hand

of God,

and there shall no torment touch them.

—Wisdom of Solomon 3:1

IV.

Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen, Herr

Zebaoth!

Meine seele verlanget und sehnet sich nach

den Vorhöfen des Herrn;

mein Leib und Seele freuen sich in dem

lebendigen Gott.

Wohl denen, die in deinem Hause wohnen,

die loben dich immerdar.

How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of

hosts!

My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the

courts of the Lord:

my heart and my flesh crieth out for the

living God.

Blessed are they that dwell in thy house:

they will be still praising thee.

—Psalm 84:1,2,4

Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit;

aber ich will euch wieder sehen

und euer Herz soll sich freuen

und eure Freude soll neimand von euch

nehmen.

Sehet mich an: Ich habe eine kleine Zeit

Mühe und Arbeit gehabt

und habe großen Trost funden.

Ich will euch trösten,

wie Einen seine Mutter tröstet.

And ye now therefore have sorrow;

but I will see you again,

and your heart shall rejoice,

and your joy no man taketh from you.

—John 16:22

Behold with your eyes, how that I have but

little labour,

and have gotten unto me much rest.

—Ecclesiasticus 51:27

As one whom his mother comforteth,

so will I comfort you.

—Isaiah 66:13

VI.

Denn wir haben hie keine bleibende Statt,

sondern die zukünftige suchen wir.

Siehe, ich sage euch ein Geheimnis:

Wir werden nicht alle entschlafen,

wir werden aber alle verwandelt werden;

und dasselbige plötzlich, in einem

Augenblick,

zu der Zeit der letzten Posaune.

Denn es wird die Posaune schallen,

und die Toten werden auferstehen

unverweslich,

und wir werden verwandelt werden.

Dann wird erfüllet werden das Wort,

das geschrieben steht:

Der Tod is verschlungen in den Sieg.

Tod, wo ist dein Stachel?

Hölle, wo ist dein Sieg?

Herr, du bist Würdig zu nehmen

Preis und Ehre und Kraft,

denn du hast alle Dinge geschaffen,

und durch deinen Willen haben sie das

Wesen und sind geschaffen.

For here have we no continuing city,

but we seek one to come.

—Hebrews 13:14

Behold, I shew you a mystery;

We shall not all sleep,

but we shall all be changed.

In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,

at the last trump:

for the trumpet shall sound,

and the dead shall be raised incorruptible,

and we shall be changed.

…then shall be brought to pass the saying

that is written,

Death is swallowed up in victory.

O death, where is thy sting?

O grave, where is thy victory?

—1 Corinthians 15:51,52,54,55

Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive

glory and honour and power:

for thou hast created all things,

and for thy pleasure they are and were

created.

—Revelation 4:11

VII.

Selig sind die Toten,

die in dem Herrn sterben, von nun an.

Ja, der Geist spricht,

daß sie ruhen von ihrer Arbeit;

denn ihre Werke folgen ihnen nach.

Blessed are the dead

which die in the Lord from henceforth:

Yea, saith the Spirit,

that they may rest from their labours;

and their works do follow them.

—Revelation 14:13

Biographies

Anne Watson Born, music director, is in her 19th season as Music Director of the Nashoba Valley Chorale, a non-auditioned choir with 90 members. Past performances of choral-orchestral works by the Chorale include: Bach Motets Nos. 1, 3, 6 and B Minor Mass, Beethoven Missa Solemnis, Brahms Ein Deutsches Requiem, Cooman The Revelations of Divine Love, Fauré Requiem, Haydn Missa in Angustiis, Lauridsen Lux Aeterna, Orff Carmina Burana, Read Thomas Far Past War, Vaughan Williams Dona nobis pacem, and Verdi Messa da Requiem.

Ms. Watson Born has been a choral conductor and teacher in the Boston area for many years. She is the Director of Music Ministry at the First Unitarian Universalist Society in Newton and is a credentialed UU music leader. Ms. Watson Born was an Assistant Professor at Bristol Community College for five years; while there she was the voice coach, composer, and sound designer for the Bristol Community College Theatre Repertory Company. In that capacity she has been the music director for productions of Threepenny Opera, Marat/Sade, and other shows. She has composed original music and/or improvised live music for several theatre productions, including King Stag, Treasure Island, Black Elk Speaks, Fireflies, and The Bacchae. She was the Music Director of the Brookline Chorus for nine years and was the founding Artistic Director of the Women’s Chorus of Boston and the Avenue of the Arts Chorale, and in 2002 she conducted the Boston-area performance of the Rolling Requiem to commemorate the tragedy of September 11.

Ms. Watson Born holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music from University of the Pacific in Stockton, California, where she studied conducting with William Dehning. She moved to Boston and obtained a Master’s degree in Choral Conducting from New England Conservatory, where her principal teacher was Lorna Cooke DeVaron. She has also studied conducting with Helmuth Rilling and Murry Sidlin, composition with John Heiss and Andrew Imbrie, and voice with Jeanne Segal and Michael Strauss. She lives in Jamaica Plain with her husband and visits their daughter in Brooklyn, NY as often as possible.

Shawn McCann, collaborative pianist, has been active in the area as an accompanist and solo performer on piano and organ for over 35 years. He is currently in his 13th consecutive year with the Nashoba Valley Chorale, having previously worked with the group for several years in the late 1990s. Shawn is also a staff accompanist/ collaborative pianist at Groton Hill Music Center. In addition to his work as an accompanist, Shawn is the Director of Music Ministries at First Parish Church of Groton, is a credentialed UU music leader and is a past president of the Association for UU Music Ministries.

Shawn received his Bachelor of Music degrees in Piano Performance and in Music Theory / Composition from the University of Lowell where he studied under Inge Lindblad and Juanita Tsu. He lives in Pepperell, MA with his wife, Monica.

Abigail Charbeneau, piano, holds a B.A. In Music from Skidmore College and an M.M. In Piano Performance and Pedagogy from the University of Illinois. She has studied with Pola Baytelman, William Heiles, Arkady Aronov, Adaleina Krivosheina, Kenneth Drake, and Reid Alexander. She Is a collaborative pianist at Plymouth State University, teaches piano at St. Paul's School and the Concord Community Music School, and Is the organist at South Congregational Church, all In Concord, NH.

Deborah Selig, soprano, performs repertoire spanning baroque to contemporary in opera, oratorio and art song across the United States. Passionate about mentoring the next generation of singers, Ms. Selig currently serves on the voice faculties of Wellesley College, Brown University and the summer Boston University Tanglewood Institute.

Operatic highlights have included Micaëla in Carmen with Dayton Opera; Sybil Vane in Liebermann’s The Picture of Dorian Gray with Odyssey Opera; Pamina in The Magic Flute with Boston Lyric Opera; Musetta in La Boheme and Zerlina in Don Giovanni with Central City Opera; Rose in Street Scene with Chautauqua Opera; Curley’s Wife in Carlisle Floyd’s Of Mice and Men and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni with Kentucky Opera; and Bella in Tippett’s A Midsummer Marriage with Boston Modern Orchestra Project.

Concert performance highlights have included Brahms’ Requiem with Buffalo Philharmonic; Ravel’s Chanson Madécasses and Judith Weir’s Nuits d’Afrique with Worcester Chamber Music Society; Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass with Back Bay Chorale; Bach’s Cantatas 36, 92 and 97 with Handel and Haydn Society; Handel’s Messiah with Rhode Island Philharmonic; Mendelssohn’s Elijah with Nashoba Valley Chorale; Mozart’s Requiem with Brown University Choir; Haydn’s Creation with Harvard University Choir; Gorecki’s Symphony No. 3 with Kentucky Symphony; and both Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and Mozart’s Vesperae Solennes de Confessore with Masterworks Chorale.

Recordings include Marcia Kraus’ Three Fairy Tales for Soprano, Oboe and Piano with Centaur Records and both Virgil Thomson’s Four Saints in Three Acts and Paul Moravec’s Blizzard Voices with Boston Modern Orchestra Project and BMOP Sound.

Ms. Selig earned an Artist Diploma in Opera and MM in Voice from Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and BM/BA in Voice Performance and English from the University of Michigan, all degrees summa cum laude. Apprenticeships included Chautauqua Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Ravinia Festival Steans Institute and Tanglewood Music Center.

David McFerrin, baritone, is active in a wide variety of musical genres. Mr. McFerrin’s solo concert engagements have ranged from Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 at St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice to various performances with Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops. He has received notable acclaim for performances of Baroque repertoire with ensembles including American Bach Soloists, Apollo’s Fire, Arion Baroque Orchestra, Boston Early Music Festival, Emmanuel Music, and the Handel & Haydn Society. Mr. McFerrin has also sung with the Cleveland Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic, and North Carolina Symphony. He is a member of the renaissance vocal ensemble Blue Heron, a 2018 Gramophone award winner.

Mr. McFerrin is also mainstay of the Boston opera scene and has sung on many other leading stages in the US and Europe. His most recent performances include Masetto in Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Thoas in Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride with Boston Baroque, as well as the complete trilogy of Britten’s church parable operas with Enigma Chamber Opera. A former Emerging Artist with Boston Lyric Opera, he has performed more than 15 roles with that company, including Pallante in Handel’s Agrippina, Junius in Britten’s Rape of Lucretia, and the Officer in Phillip Glass’ gripping two-character drama In the Penal Colony. Additional opera credits include Florida Grand Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Seattle Opera, Odyssey Opera, and the Rossini Festival in Wildbad, Germany.

Mr. McFerrin holds degrees from Carleton College, Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and the Juilliard School. He lives in Natick, Massachusetts with his wife Erin Doherty (an architectural historian and preservation planner), their six-year-old daughter Fiona, and black lab Holly.

Nashoba Valley Chorale

Soprano

Elizabeth Auld

Nicola Barlow

Savannah Brinkman-Cruz

Sarah Browne

Laura Conway

Julie Corenzwit

Mary Havlicek Cornacchia

Barbara Dailey

Sylvia Degrado

Susan Hill

Agrima Kaushik

Kendra Kratkiewicz

Joy Curtis Madden

Lora Madonia

Maryclare McDonough

Keiko Nakagawa

Rosemary Ouellet

Fredrica Phillips

Adrienne Rau

Dianali Rivera-Morales

Sherry Ryder

Pamela Schweppe*

Melinda Stewart

Ellyson Stout

Chen Yan

Alto

Pamela Aldred

Bonnie Chandler

Karen Emerson

Anya Harter

Donna M. Hicks

Jin Hong

Katie Logwood

Ruth Lyddy

Anna Mayor

Carol Miller

Jennifer Normand

Kimberly Parker

Karen Pokross

Luana Read

Kathie Renzhofer

Kathy Romberg

Nancy B. Stephens

Debra Strick

Erica Tamlyn

Sharla Tracy

Natasha Westland

Charlotte Whatley

Priscilla Williams

Tenor

George Batchelor

Andrew Courtney

Paul C. Garver

Jim Kay

Sam Pilato

Ernie Preisig

Tom Ryder

Todd Shilhanek

Tony Simollardes

Bass

Ira Sagiv Alkalay

Michael Arquilla

Charles M. Bliss, Jr.

Paul Brinkman

Timothy Butler

John Chandler

Douglas Dalrymple

Bob Goldsmith

David G. Grubbs

Paul Harter

Dave Hazen

John Hennessey

Yigal Hochberg

William Hoermann

Richard Hussong

Bernie Kirstein

Dane Krampitz

Michael Manugian

Mark Mudgett

David Schlier

Mayhew Seavey

Robert Tuttle*

Ray Wilson

* Rehearsal soloists

2023–2024 Nashoba Valley Chorale

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Officers and Volunteers (link)

Donors and Supporters

The Nashoba Valley Chorale wishes to thank the following individuals, organizations, and companies for their generous support.

$1,000 and Over

John Hennessy
The Krampitz and Odmark Charitable Gift Fund
Kathy Romberg
Melinda Stewart & Richard Hussong

$500 to $999

Anne Watson Born

Paul & Geraldine Harter
Susan Hill
Philip LaFollette

Ruth Lyddy

Luana Read
Kathie & Martin Renzhofer

Nancy B. Stephens
Town of Pepperell
Worcester Youth Orchestras, Inc

$100 to $499

Nicola Barlow

Corinne Bauer
Berkshire Choral International
Camilla C. Blackman
Sarah Browne

Laura Conway
Julie Corenzwit

Douglas Dalrymple

Sylvia Degrado
Tamasin Foote
David G. Grubbs
Marge Hamel
David Hardt
William & Elizabeth Hoermann

Cam Huff
Bernie & Michelle Kirstein

Kendra & Gary Kratkiewicz
Peter T. Macy
Michael & Aleta Manugian
Midnight Tango Fund

Debra Minard
Keiko Nakagawa & Sam Pilato

Patricia Oliver-Shaffer
Kim Parker
Fredrica Phillips

Karen Pokross & Ken Caldwell
Ernie Preisig
Pam & Griff Resor
Sherry & Tom Ryder
Arthur Schintzel, Jr.

Pamela Schweppe
Jonathan & Priscilla Stevens

Robert Tuttle

Charles & Candyce Wainwright
Sarah Watson
Priscilla Williams

Raymond Wilson
Chen Yan

Up to $100

Laurie Ainsworth

James Bellows

Mary Borowski

Ellen Brandt

Catherine Breen

Michael Broderick

Mimi Broderick

Mary Havlicek Cornacchia

Nick DeCristofaro

Sandy DeCristofaro

Amanda Dibuono

Pascale Duquet

Keith Elliston

Ashley Farmer

Deena Ferrara

Robert Ferrara

Eric Fisher

Susan Gaeta

Paul C. Garver

Dan Gauger

Frieda Gillespie

Lynda Cohen & Robert Grappel

Carole Greenfield

Dave Hazen

Donna M. Hicks

Pamela Hill

Jin Hong

Susan James

Natalie Jensen

Christine Johnson

Harold Jones

Elea Kemler

Ruth Khols

Barbara A. Leary

Nora Leonardo

Susan LeVan

Susan Livada

Val Livada

Robert Lotz

Michael Luby

David Manugian

Bonnie Marchesani

Victor Matheson

Mark Matson

Anna Mayor

Davis McCabe

Carole McWilliams

Olga Michail

Susan Michaud

David Miller

Lisa Mitchell

Dianali Rivera Morales

John Morey

Annalisa Prahl

Rachel Rader

Sandra Rader

Timothy P. Recko

Mary Reiff

Lori Reardon Roche

Dina Samfield

Deborah Santoro

Rebecca Sharpe

Todd Shilhanek

P.K. Simmons-Mavilia

Rebecca Spanagel

Laura Sparer

Elizabeth Storrs

Carol Swift

Erica Tamlyn

Steven Tellin

Victoria Thatcher

Erik Westland

Kevin Whatley

Cynthia Williams

Central Massachusetts Choral Consortium

www.MassChoral.org

This group is a member of the Central Massachusetts Choral Consortium, whose purpose is to promote choral activities throughout the Central Massachusetts region through public awareness and performance. Please see the website listed above to learn more and to find out about choral events scheduled for this season.

Member groups currently include:

Acton Community Chorus, Lisa Cooper, Director
Assabet Valley Mastersingers, Dr. Robert P. Eaton, Artistic Director
Greater Gardner Community Choir, Diane Cushing, Music Director
Master Singers of Worcester, Ed Tyler, Artistic Director
Nashoba Valley Chorale, Anne Watson Born, Music Director
Salisbury Singers, Bradford T. Dumont, Music Director
Shir Joy, Nan AK Gibbons, Director
Sounds of Stow Chorus & Orchestra, Barbara Jones, Artistic Director
Westford Chorus, Jim Barkovic, Music Director
Worcester Chorus, Christopher Shepard, Artistic Director

GREATER
BOSTON
CHORAL
CONSORTIUM

Find more choral concerts near you!

We are a proud member of the Greater Boston Choral Consortium, a cooperative association of diverse choral groups in Boston and the surrounding areas.

View the digital concert calendar:

BOSTONSINGS.ORG